Tag: gluten free makeovers

Is there a particular GF bread recipe that you like best or would recommend? *curious* Thanks! :)

The recipe I’ve made most is found in Gluten Free Makeovers and is Beth and Jen’s High Fiber Bread, though I substitute three of the flours because some are hard to come by. Millet and Montina I sub for buckwheat and quinoa, and lupin flour for the teff. (Lupin is a bean flour, but be careful – it can cause a reaction in people with a peanut allergy.) I don’t know if the recipe’s on Beth’s blog or if it’s a book-only recipe. I’ve attempted a fair few of the bread recipes in the book, and they’ve turned out pretty well, even with substitutions. That recipe is the one I go back to, though. I often fill it full of seeds, too – poppy, sesame, linseed and sunflower are favourite additions. I often brush the top with sesame oil, too, because I love the flavour and it gives a great crust.

If you’re interested in getting into baking, I’ll tell you this – with most GF bread doughs, you cannot knead them. You need a good stand mixer with a dough hook. If you try to knead by hand, you’ll just get it everywhere and end up with no bread. Use the machine. Also, I don’t know how most bread baking machines go with GF dough. The one bread machine I tried to use kept erroring out, even though we were using the GF recipe from its own manual. Use the oven.

fabbittle:

fabbittle:

Hey y’all the kid I’m going to be nannying starting in August is gluten intolerant. I’d really like to perfect some recipes for her before I start working with that family.

Does anyone have some good gf baking tips?

I’m going to keep reblobbing myself until I know everything about gf baking

Gluten Free Makeovers, Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache*, River Cottage Gluten Free, Gluten-Free Girl for cookbooks. (All of these are actually on my bookshelf.)

I Breathe I’m Hungry, Healthful Pursuit, Smitten Kitchen**, Gluten Free Girl, Gluten Free Goddess, Gluten Free Makeovers for blogs/websites.

*Avoid or modify the scone recipes as these contain spelt, a low gluten but not zero gluten ancient wheat variety. All other recipes gluten free.

**Not completely gluten free but has a good collection of recipes searchable by tags

From people living with Coeliacs for over ten years, The Basics are:

– The four big ‘no’s’ are Wheat, Barley, Rye, and Oats. Wheat is sneaky because it’s in everything, and because you need to avoid ‘ancient’ variants such as spelt and other variations, such as durum, semolina, cous cous and burghul/bulgar. Barley is sneaky because it’s often used as a flavouring agent – avoid things like Malted milk and Worcestershire Sauce unless it’s labelled gluten free. Rye is sneaky beacause people don’t associate it with gluten. Rye bread is very much not gluten free. Oats are sneaky because it’s a grey area. Some people react to them, some don’t. Some say the only problem comes from farming and processing it alongside wheat and other gluten grains. Some say people who have no reaction to it are still reacting to it, they just don’t feel it. There is a market for ‘uncontaminated’ oats that are grown and processed in isolation from other grains. Some Coeliacs eat these. We are one of those families, but every person’s reactions are different, so it’s safer to avoid if you’re not sure, or when it’s a child.

– Look for alternatives. Other grains and gluten free options are your friends. Buckwheat, despite the name, is not a wheat, and is fine. Just look out for additives. Quinoa is fine, rice is great, beans, pulses and seeds and nuts in their natural forms are fantastic. TVP is a good meat alternative, just check the labels for colourings and flavourings. A good GF pasta is gold – we use Buontempo – but don’t overcook it or it turns to inedible glue. Rice noodles are great, just check they’re 100% rice. Chang’s brand does good wok-ready instant noodles you don’t have to rehydrate.

– Read the labels on everything. Wheat and other gluten containing grains like barley can hide in soy sauce, cornflour, iced tea, potato crisps and other snack foods like crackers and nuts, frozen bake at home fries, soba noodles, BBQ sauce, rice bubbles, corn flakes, chocolate, tofu and other vege meats like Quorn, ice cream, flavoured milks and coffees, sausages and burger patties, crumb coats or batter coatings on meat and vegetables, custard, stocks, marinades and gravy. Gluten containing cereals are used as thickeners, flavouring agents, colouring agents, source of maltodextrin, source of glucose syrup, as a booster of protein in breakfast cereals and as a filler in things you’d think would be wheat free (I’m looking at you, soy sauce.)

– Keep your kitchen spotless. That microscopic toast crumb on a chopping board can ruin a Coeliac’s day, or even send them to hospital, depending on how their allergy presents. Have separate working spaces and kitchen utensils if possible, because that takes the stress out of it. If you can’t, then wipe down and clean everything, every time, if you know there’s been gluten in the area. Separate chopping boards are a must. Separate plastic bowls are ideal, or do what I did and switch to stainless steel and pyrex, neither of which scratch up and retain food particles like plastic does. Consider investing in separate cake tins if you’re into baking, since it’s impossible to clean flour out of every crack and crevice, or be absolutely meticulous in lining with baking paper or dedicated GF silicone liners every time.

– Have a separate tub of butter for your GF friend. No matter what, there are always crumbs transferred from knife to tub. I cannot stress this enough.

– Play around with recipes and learn how baking works. Gluten Free Makeovers is amazing for this. Making my own bread using the flours I could get my hands on using Beth’s substitution table was one of the most empowering things I’ve done. Plus it saves you a whack of money. Premade shop bought gluten free bread is hard to find, expensive, and most of the time, underwhelming to say the least.